Gertie's New Fashion Sketchbook: Indispensable Figure Templates for Body-Positive Design (Gertie's Sewing), Hirsch, Gretchen

Received this in the mail last week and am very pleased with the purchase. I know several reviewers were not happy with their purchase but I found nothing wrong with the sketch book. The book has a heavy duty spiral binding with hardboard cover and back. The pages are of a nice weight for sketching and erasing and are perforated at the top so you can detach your sketch easily. The author offers a nice introduction with notes on how to sketch your figure along with a brief history on various design era's and pointers on how to sketch your designs. There is a short compiled listing of recommended reading and sources. Onto the actual sketch pages. Many reviewers stated they could not see their croquis but I did not find that to be the case. The first four croquis in my book were indeed difficult to see but in flipping through "every single page" in the book the remaining croquis were fine and could be seen. I especially loved the pages with three figures on them offering you the opportunity to sketch the front, back and side views. I have included some pictures that I took with my cell phone. Not sure how they will view online but hoping they will help aid you in your decision to purchase this book. I do like the actual figures as well because they are more realistic as to what a women's body is and not the elongated figures of the fashion industry. As the author stated there are three sketch lines that you can follow to make your figure smaller or larger. Given this information the figures in this book are not plus-size but will give you an accurate depiction of say a small, medium and large body type. I would recommend giving this sketch book a try and can't wait to get creative and use it!!!

I love this book! I like to sew, and wanted a way to see design ideas on paper to refine ideas before mockups. Sadly, I stink a drawing and my figure proportions have always been off. This book is full of very light figure outlines in different poses you can trace. And the best part is they are real people proportions not sky high tall thin models. So I get an idea what the garment I’m designing will look like on my actual figure versus a model. And the more I trace I find the better my freehand is getting as I get used to the figure proportions. Perfect book!

VERY PLEASED WITH ITEM, QUALITY, SHIPPING & SERVICE!!!

Great for sketching designs for future projects.

What I like best about this sketchbook is that the figures are realistically proportioned. When designing something for a real person, this works much better than the "high fashion" figures. It is easier to get a visual idea of how a style will work while sketching vs sketching on a runway model style figure and then finding it doesn't translate quite as well to a typical persons figure. What I'm not as fond of is that the figures are so light it's difficult for me to see them without looking very carefully. Granted, all similar sketchbooks are light in the same way and my eyes are getting older.

First 2 pictures are sketches with the help of the models body outline. 3rd is sister's fashion sketches before the book. The book has model outlines that really help your drawings look good. My sister had a really hard time drawing clothes she was sewing until I got her this.

Wonderful sketchbook! I love the nested quality of the figures and the easy-going poses they make. Its wonderful to work with figures that are closer to real-life proportions for the average woman and are able to be easily given larger waists and hips and wider shoulders to become a variety of body types. I will definitely invest in another once this one is full. Great for people, like myself, who want to design with "plus-sized" figures in mind.

Yes it's faint...it's supposed to be so that the ink can disappear when photocopying. I can see it just fine. Sometimes I'll take a pencil and outline it first. For those who wanna keep it but can't see...have someone who can see take a pencil and darken the outlines for you.

This was a great Sketchbook. Even though I didn't use it, it was perfect for what was intended and I enjoyed passing it on to another who will use it well.

Tolle Alternative zu den Topmodell-Blöcken. Der Block enthält lauter ‚leere‘ Seiten, auf denen Figuren angedeutet sind, zu Beginn gibt es ein paar einleitende Worte/Illustrationen. Meine 11 jährige Tochter ist begeistert, die Figuren sind kaum, aber doch zu sehen und in einer Vielzahl vorhanden. Nur Sticker und sonstige Ergänzungen gibt es nicht, es handelt sich hier um Vorlagen (siehe Foto) zum Entwerfen von Mode.

Some people say the croquis are too faint, but I think that's good since a person can adjust the form to their liking. I also love that they're not skinny women and that they have curves, as do I. I've had it for a long time, but today is the first time I used it, having a thing about making a mark in a brand new book. haha Anyway, it was fun to use, and it was great for me since I'm bad at drawing the human body. So this is quite a helpful tool for me. There are croquis in various poses. A croquis is a figure of the human form used in fashion design. Also, there's plenty of room for notes and fabric swatches, which I'd like to add in the future. I included a picture of my first project, which I added to the book today, to show one possibility of what can be done with it.

The impression of the human figures are helpful, but the pages should be bigger and longer

Il blocco è carinissimo, solido, di dimensioni un po' piu grandi del solito (punto a favore!), carta abbastanza pesante. La varietà di pose mi è piaciuta molto, in alcune pagine ci sono 2 modelli mentre in altre 3, e le combinazioni di pose sembra non ripetersi mai. Ma la cosa che piu mi è piaciuta è la flessibilità delle modelle e la leggerezza del tratto con cui sono stampate - so che alcuni possono trovarle difficile da vedersi, ma per disegnare è fantastico, perche consente di modificare le linee del corpo a proprio piacimento, ed una volta disegnati i vestiti, non si vede piu il corpo stampato al di sotto! Ovviamente poi è meraviglioso il fatto che le figure siano piuttosto realistiche, e che si possa comunque renderle piu snelle o robuste a seconda di come si seguono le linee stampate.